Wings Of Neptune (1963) By Donald Macintyre
 
Captain Macintyre, author of Jutland, U-Boat Killer, and other books on naval history, was a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy. Here he tells the full story of naval aviation.

In the first World War, air defense was a really new concept. The planes which defended the British coast against Zeppelin raids were from naval squadrons, flown by R.N.A.S. pilots. Strategic bombings too, was first undertaken by naval aircraft, land planes working from shore lines in Flanders. By 1918, Britain had a huge lead in naval aviation. Aircraft carriers had been built or converted from other ships; and the techniques of deck-landing and aircraft operation at sea had been pioneered and developed.

Then in 1922 the first American aircraft carrier was commissioned and the Japanese followed a year later. Those were the years when the Japanese and Americans took over the world lead in naval aviation. The buildup culminated in the superbly efficient Japanese naval air force which struck like a thunderbolt at Pearl Harbor and swept across the South Pacific almost without opposition.

Macintyre tells of the creation of the greatest striking force in the history of naval warfare--the United States carrier fleet and of the consequent turning of the tide at Midway and in the Coral Sea. His description of what was probably the last great naval air battle (and the last-but-one great fleet battle of any kind)--The "Marianas Turkey Shoot" of June, 1944, forms the climax to his history and is a magnificent story of individual heroism on both sides.

Wings of Neptune is clear and absorbing military history and a narrative of intense excitement. 
 
Hard Cover with Dust Jacket
268 pages
In Fair to Good Condition